Bangladesh keeping hill tribes, religious minorities off Constitutional reform process: Rights group

Students from Mog community under the banner of ‘Society of Welfare for Mog Students’ stage a protest against the attack and killing of Indigenous people and students in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), in Agartala.
| Photo Credit: ANI

GUWAHATI

The interim government of Bangladesh headed by Mohammed Yunus is excluding the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) and religious minorities from the constitutional reform process, a New Delhi-based rights group said on Thursday (October 10, 2024).

The Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) flagged the challenges faced by non-Muslims in Bangladesh in a report titled ‘Conflicts in Bangladesh and Myanmar: The Threat to Regional Peace and Security’ that was released through a briefing for the diplomatic community in New Delhi.

Also read: Rights group allege Bangladesh Army was inactive while indigenous people attacked in CHT

RRAG director Suhas Chakma said the Bangladesh government notified a nine-member Constitution Reform Commission on October 6 without including representatives of the hill tribes in the CHT and the religious minorities.

“Only one woman, professor Sumaiya Khair, was included, violating the basic spirit of the Jatiya Sangsad (Reserved Women Seats) Election Act, 2004, which reserved seats for women,” he said.

“The world view of Mohammed Yunus, who has become the soft face of Islamists in Bangladesh, is exclusion of the vulnerable communities. Such exclusion was not done by former President H.M. Ershad and ex-Prime Ministers, Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina,” Mr. Chakma said.

Coordinated attacks

The RRAG report highlighted the intensification of human rights violations under Dr. Yunus in the CHT. It said that from September 19 to October 1, the illegal plains settlers and Bangladesh Army-led organised assaults on the indigenous peoples in the Dighinala, Khagrachari, and Rangmati districts.

“The Bangladesh Army and the illegal settlers specifically targeted shops and other business establishments of indigenous peoples in the towns,” the report said, presenting a list of 75 indigenous people injured and 142 houses, shops and other business establishments, properties, and Buddhist temples that were looted, destroyed and set ablaze.

“Following these attacks, across the CHT, the hill tribes have effectively been expelled from the upazila/sub-district and district markets dominated by the illegal plain settlers. Indigenous peoples have been effectively barred from participation in economic activities in urban areas of the CHT because of the segregation, communal tensions and the partisan law enforcement agencies and the administration,” the report said.

The RRAG called upon the diplomatic community to pressure the Bangladesh government to include the indigenous peoples and religious minorities in the constitutional reform process, recognise their rights in the country’s proposed new constitution, and grant constitutional status to the CHT. It also sought an investigation by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to probe human rights violations in the country up to October 1.

Diplomats from Sri Lanka, Slovenia, Canada, Switzerland, Finland, the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations Office, Guyana, Russia, the Netherlands, Kenya, the Philippines, Laos, Mongolia, and Zambia participated in the briefing. Other participants included India’s former Ambassador Gautam Mukhopadhyay, former High Commissioner Veena Sikri, and former Ambassador Nengcha Lhouvum Mukhopadhyay apart from the representatives of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.